How do I clean up my Mac?
If your Mac is slowing down, you should clean up your operating system. There are various options here. With the hard disk utility integrated in MacOS, you can repair incorrectly set access rights. With the free tool "CCleaner" for Mac, unusable caches, cookies and registry caches as well as log files can be removed from your system. The program also helps you to cleanly uninstall programs and overwrite unused data storage on your hard drive.
Clean up Mac with the CCleaner
To get your Mac back on track, you should have your system analyzed by the free "CCleaner" program and then delete the faulty files.
- Start the "CCleaner" program and select the "Cleaner" button. Next you will see numerous ticks under the items "Caches", "Trash" or "Log files". You should refrain from ticking any other items such as "Font Registry Cache" or "User Downloaded" in order not to delete important system data or to lose downloaded files.
- Next, select the "Analyze" menu item and wait for the result. The faulty files found are now presented in a list.
- Now select the "Start CCleaner" button to remove the affected files from your computer.
- Now you should restart and your Mac should work a little faster overall.
Cleaning up with the hard drive utility
With the integrated hard disk utility, you can repair defective access rights that can otherwise cause system malfunctions.
- Select the Spotlight search in the top bar next to your user name (key combination apple + space) and enter "hard disk utility" there. Then select the first top hit.
- Now select the desired hard drive from the list on the left and then activate the "Repair volume access rights" button.
- This procedure can take a few minutes. Then the comment "Repair of access rights completed" should appear.
- Now you can restart your Mac and the system should run smoother overall.
This practical tip was applied to a MacBook Air with MacOS 10.8.3.